Spice up Google’s Carmen Sandiego Game With a Real Theme Song
There has always been a place in my heart for Carmen Sandiego’s old school “educational and entertaining” games, because they taught me decently a little about geography as a child. I also loved the awesome TV show (with an awesome theme song ), although I’m pretty sure I had nightmares of being on a show and being stuck in an incredibly difficult continent in a grand finale like Africa .
If you’re a fan of Netflix’s new version of the Carmen Sandiego franchise – great animation but still missing Rockapella’s catchy riff – you can now try to catch the master thief (s) yourself. Launch the first game, created by Google in partnership with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, via Google Earth on the web or in its Android or iOS apps .
(If you’re using the latter two, you’ll need to find the little Carmen Sandiego icon at the bottom of the app.)
While Google’s game is fun and pays homage to the old educational and entertainment games with its witness-interviewing and travel aspects, it’s not exactly the perfect Carmen Sandiego experience I’d like to have. For example, there are no sound effects, so you won’t hear the clap clap clap clap of your boots as you pull Sherlock in new places.
To fix this, I recommend opening this site and letting it run in the background while you do your detective work. I promise you will get a little better.
I love how the game brings you closer to the real world, rather than the rough art of educational games that are supposed to represent the various attractions you visit. Satellite imagery gives a good real-world approximation of what you are looking at and how large it is, as well as additional context to show you where the landmark actually is in the cities you visit. If you don’t travel the world too much, it’s always good to know that some of the destinations you’ve loved since childhood are near Starbucks (or Pizza Hut ).
If you still haven’t wondered about this new Carmen Sandiego experience, don’t worry. You can still get the old school fix by going to archive.org and looking at any of Carmen Sandiego’s titles from ten years ago: Where is Carmen Sandiego in space , Where is Carmen Sandiego in America’s past , Where is Carmen Sandiego in time , Where is Carmen Sandiego at Disneyland because I want to get unemployment benefits and I’m tired of waiting , etc.